(b. 1977)
Lavanya Mani (b. 1977), a Bangalore / Baroda based artist, harnesses traditional Indian craft and textile techniques of kalamkari, embroidery, tie and dye, appliqué, batik etc. in conjunction with painting on cloth. Whilst re- envisioning the histories of colonial power dynamics and trade in her unique textile language, she powerfully creates a new narrative with the cloth as the storyteller. Often questioning the ideas of the ‘Orient’, she has recontextualised Victorian travellers stories through her lens of discovering dye-making. Fearlessly embracing the politics surrounding a self taught contemporary artist using a traditionally male dominated art form of Kalamkari to create wider statements in her artistic journey, Mani continues to bring in the pertinent transition between ‘high art’ and ‘craft’ and continues to explore more.
Lavanya Mani has long explored the relationship between ‘textiles’ and ‘text’, drawing on metaphors such as “following a thread of narrative”, “embroidering a tale”, or “weaving a story” to examine how histories—especially those shaped by colonial encounters—are constructed. Early European travelers to the East played a key role in shaping perceptions of these regions, often blending fact with fiction to perpetuate enduring myths and stereotypes about the Orient.